Blog Archive
Misc
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Executives at Toyota will be feeling this acutely. A cartoon in The Times today shows a driver of a Toyota with a ejector seat lever next to him. From an icon of reliability to a standing joke is a mighty fall. MPs, bankers, and other groups have also seen trust erode recently – because people believe they have done irresponsible things with public money.
Washington and San Francisco. Barack Obama and Steve Jobs.
In America on 27th January 2010, two men gave two very different speeches. Both President Obama and Steve Jobs took to the stage last night to command the world’s attention. President Obama’s first State of Union came in the wake of a media storm following last week’s Massachusett’s election, while Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, having managed to generate a whirl of popular speculation around Apple’s latest launch without saying a word.
Burns Night, Monday 25th January, saw many of our team, clients and associates participate in a very special whisky-tasting event at Century Club in Shaftesbury Avenue. This wasn’t just about an excuse to indulge in the amber nectar, nor simply an opportunity for a social; it was a superb, seamless piece of storytelling, delivered by the Ambassador of one of the UK’s most celebrated single malt scotch whiskies – The Balvenie – Dr Andy Forrester.
Is anyone else as besotted as I am with meerkats? I just love them. They’re so cute, confident and cool. Not just the real animals of course – I mean the pretend ones on Compare the market’s fabulous TV ads.
I have been taken aback on two occasions recently as I realised the sheer power of the way humans share things digitally.
First, I noticed my son Dominic (who is 16) using phrases such as “No Charlie” and “That hurts Charlie” dropped into everyday speech – as 16 year-olds do! There was a particular way that he said it, a kind of baby-talk. I just dismissed it as a “different generation” thing. Then, he was on the computer playing youtube videos, and happened to play the one this came from. I was on the London underground a few days later – and a small girl was using exactly the same phrases. I have since discovered that this youtube video has been viewed 149 million times! From a chance filming on a home camera of a couple of kids new phrases almost instantly appeared in youth speech!
(This from our colleague Dan Honeywell, whose expertise in all things Mandarin earns him huge respect from the team):
Isn’t language fascinating? I have always been amazed at how squiggles, lines, dots and sounds can combine to form such beautifully intricate forms of communication.
In these recessionary times, companies around the world are cutting back on bonuses and cash rewards because they can’t afford them, with the exception it seems of certain banks.
Found this great, two-part article on the BBC News site. Commissioned by BBC2’s ‘Working Lunch’ programme, executives and entrepreneurs are asked about the literature that has inspired them in business.
Within organisations and the community people look to their leaders for guidance. Their messages are often powerful, inspirational and influential. So what happens when your leader communicates a controversial issue? Recently a Parish Priest openly supported and encouraged desperate people in need to steal.
Watching Chris Hollins win Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday evening provoked a great conversation amongst my friends gathered to watch the final. How we all love to see an underdog win, how an engaging personality could triumph over real talent, how small and vibrant won ahead of tall and elegant and then one person said ‘I think it was the journey he took….’.
I went to a Christmas carol service on Saturday in Lichfield cathedral. Not through any great sense of religious conviction, but just because it’s a nice thing to do at this time of year. And the carols – sung by bright young things with hopeful faces – were great.
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has been around for many years. In fact, since the 50’s when the phrase was first used by academics and business leaders to identify and articulate the impact of global businesses on society. (I imagine the phrase was near strangled by the booms and busts of the 80’s and 90’s when the environment was not at the forefront of a businesses strategy).
Congratulations to Bill Bryson, whose book A Short History of Nearly Everything has been declared the top selling non-fiction book of the decade.
Apparently London is becoming a breeding ground for innovative new words and phrases. In fact, it’s becoming a new world leader in the production of slang. That’s according to linguists, says the BBC.
A wonderful piece of storytelling
It was a complete coincidence, but I started to read Animal’s People just a few days before I heard on the news that this week is the 25th anniversary of the Union Carbide chemical factory disaster in Bhopal, India.
Welcome to our new website! Please have a browse, watch the film with the volume turned right up, post a comment to let us know what you think of it or just quietly ponder!
When 26 was set up six years ago, the aim was to promote the value of writing in business, in life, in all its diversity. That’s what made Oona King such a great choice of speaker.
I was touched by this poem ‘Lost Generation’ by Jonathan Reed. It speaks of the negative, cynical viewpoint of a Gen Y individual, yet on reaching the end – and you have to follow the instructions – a message of positivity and a statement of intent shines through.
Apologies. It’s been a dry old month on the blog front, I know, but the new term is starting and we’re raring to go. And what better subject to start with than the old chestnut of trust in organisations. I’ve written about this before, but it deserves another mention as a timely report has emerged from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) that shows that a third of our workers don’t trust their bosses, and labelling CEO’s as those who are trusted least. Not surprisingly (and it’s not new news), line managers came off better in the trust stakes.
Good Lord, is this really true? Has employee engagement come to this? It’s enough to make anyone choke on their cornflakes as they open up their long-awaited copy of this month’s HR Magazine. There’s one thing to have a ‘dress down’ Friday, but this really takes the biscuit…
The story of Dave Carroll’s broken guitar caught my eye this week. It shows just how far consumer power has come. United Airlines managed to break the little-known singer’s prized guitar while he changed planes in Chicago – the mishandling could clearly be seen from the plane window. After a year of trying to get compensation, Mr Carroll decided to use the best assets he had – his (repaired) guitar, his singing voice, and YouTube.
I was delighted to shoot in the only all-girls team yesterday at Peter Jones’ Fourth Annual Clay Pigeon Shoot in aid of the Peter Jones Foundation at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School as a guest of leading executive search firm Taylor Bennett. Heather McGregor, MD of Taylor Bennett and who also masquerades as the FT columnist Mrs Moneypenny, is a great shot and much fun to be with, as were the rest of the team. We came 4th out of 23 teams – no mean feat with some pretty daunting stands and high, fast birds and some equally competitive gents to contend with! But I digress…
In the political maelstrom that Britain is currently experiencing, much of the mud-slinging that’s been levelled at the Labour party this week has focused on the PM’s personality and style of leadership. It raises questions for many about leadership communication – how different personal styles influence people, and the importance of authenticity in order to maintain credibility.
Unless you’ve been living on planet Zog, you can’t have failed to notice the huge publicity Susan Boyle, contestant on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent, has attracted. Famed for her bushy eyebrows and the voice of an angel, the singer is tipped to win the competition. But what if she had been an investment banker, or a politician? Would Britain be behind her in quite the same way? What has touched the hearts of the nation? Is it her looks? Is it her voice? Or is it her personal story which has propelled her into stardom?
I’ve just finished reading a great book called ‘Ghost’ by Robert Harris. It’s an engrossing thriller about a Ghost Writer employed to write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister responsible for waging a highly controversial war in the Middle East. (The book is fiction but you would be entirely forgiven for assuming the PM is based on Tony Blair).
I was fascinated by an article describing Oprah Winfrey’s interview with author Daniel Pink . He describes a shift in emphasis from left-brain logical thinking to right-brain creativity. He argues that business is outsourcing more left-brain activities to Asia as well as by using software to do much of the other logical work. Our world therefore has an enhanced need for creativity to drive progress. Design shapes our experience of everything we touch and everywhere we go, whether it’s a computer mouse, a car or an airport. So needing to focus less on the logical aspects will power that shift to creativity
The media spotlight is well and truly focused on MP’s and their expense claims this week, highlighting the jaw-dropping chasm between what is technically legal and what is moral and ethical. Watching some of these MP’s squirm as, one by one, they attempt to explain away their claims (sorry, ‘mistakes’) as the public mood darkens by the day merely serves to demonstrate the fragility of trust. Interesting to see David Cameron’s entreaty to his MP’s to lead by example and ‘pay back or get out’. After all, good leadership and trust is all about leading by example. Clever.
The sudden downturn in the global economy has caught many people and businesses unawares. And I am certain that the upturn will do exactly the same. I venture to suggest that the upturn could be even more dangerous.
Barack Obama has been hailed as one of the finest orators in recent history. On the day that he is inaugurated as the 44th US President, we celebrate a passage from Dreams Of My Father (Barack Obama 1995):
Anyone who attended last week’s HR Leadership Alliance in London will know what I’m talking about. This is a phrase coined at the conference by HR Guru Dave Ulrich, who gave some fascinating insights into the role of HR in business today.